Loving Madness

29. Serena

Wake Me Up When September Ends- Green Day

MAYSLEE POV-

The man in the corner begins to gather his power, as he knows he is caught. Siobhan is making her way over to him. He is not one of the Grand Coven Leaders, merely one of their servants. Searching his mind further, I can see that he doesn't want peace. He wants the eradication of the entire Vampire race. I search through his mind, trying to find any other information that would be useful. The entire time, I am relaying everything to Siobhan. She is feeling a bit overwhelmed, as she is not used to processing information in this way. I won't stop because she needs to know everything and if I'm sending it to her as I'm receiving it, there is no room for error.

Suddenly, my face is on fire. Not literally, but a pain runs through me, unlike anything I have ever experienced. I am forced to my knees the pain is so great. Since the mind link was still open with Siobhan, she experiences the same thing. A scream slips from my lips and the attention is taken off of the man for just a moment. That's all he needed. I shove the pain away, knowing that it is not real, and focus all of my power on him. He was trying to escape, but now he is simply dust. The pain is almost unbearable and I don't have any idea what is happening.

"Your Majesty, someone is hurting your mate. We must find him now." Siobhan had realized what was going on long before I had. The mind link had been peaceful the entire time and when I checked in with Kurt, there was no response so I assumed he was sleeping. Examining it closer, it seemed to almost be stuck in a loop. The feelings coming through felt stale and I realize they are the same feelings I had felt coming off of him this morning. "That isn't enough to kill him, but anyone willing to hurt the Queen's mate just might be crazy enough to kill him."

Her words sink in and I am rocked with agony once again. There is a searing pain drawing from my wrist to my inner elbow. I cry out in pain and Siobhan reaches out to comfort me. When she touches me her face fills with disgust and I am confused enough to distract me from the pain. I push it back once again and rush to put up a shield. Not enough to completely stop the pain, but enough for me to think through it. I need to feel this. For Kurt.

Sebastian's arm is suddenly around me, lending me strength. I am grateful for the comfort he gives me, but the anger coming off of him in waves is not helpful. His angry aura is enough to make my eyes being to flicker between purple and smoky. I feel my anger rise and know I have to keep my darkness at bay. I would kill anyone who got in my way to find Kurt. Sebastian murmurs comforting things inside my head while rubbing small circles between my shoulder blades.

"What does it mean? It doesn't feel like they are cutting him or like any fire I've ever felt." I am panicking and on the verge of ripping someone's throat out as I turn to Siobhan for answers.

"It is a witch's powers doing this. It is forbidden magic that was outlawed centuries ago. I need you to open your mind to me again so I can see what other magic is at work here. Hold my hands as well, physical contact makes the link stronger." I give her my hands immediately and give her access to every part of my mind. It's a strange feeling, having someone poke and prod around in your head. It's worth every bit of discomfort to find and make sure that Kurt is okay. "Your Majesty, you need to stay calm. If you panic, all four Kingdoms will too. You have to stay strong and make sure you are level-headed for the sake of everyone else." She says this to me in private, while she is still searching my mind.

"You don't have to call me Your Majesty by the way. You can just call me Mayslee. Do you see anything?" I am frantically trying to calm down, which completely defeats the purpose, but I have to keep it together.

"Yes! There was a loop placed on the mind link. If you focus here," She prods at the link in my mind and continues, "there is an almost rubber band-like structure. It's a simple disrupter spell, you should be able to burst through it fairly easily." I do as she says and the loop is broken. I almost wish it wasn't. Now, not only could I feel the pain he was going through, but I could also feel the anguish he had at the thought of my feeling his pain. "You can also help him until we can find him. You can expand your shield through the mind link. This will block the worst of the pain and make it bearable enough for him to maybe let us know anything he can find out."

I feel pride coming off of Sebastian, at how natural I am at all of this. He's proud of me. My cheeks heat and I love the feeling of receiving praise from him, even if it was an indirect feeling he had. I realize with dread how unhealthy it is for me to feel this way, but I don't have time to think about it now.

"Siobhan, I will forever be in your debt, I cannot express how much your help means to me," I tell her this through the mind link because I can see that it would have embarrassed her. I feel her nod in my direction, acknowledging my statement, but unsure what to say. I expand my shield around the connection between Kurt and I and I feel him relax a bit.

My cub, where are you? I say softly through the link and at first, he thinks he must be hallucinating. I'm here, my love. The Grand Coven Leaders are here helping me. I will find you, my cub. You will be home in no time.

I'm not sure. All I can see is a stone wall, like natural stone. There is a woman here. She is the one who poisoned my drink. I thought she was part of the castle staff, but she tricked me. Mayslee, I am so sorry. I won't tell them anything, I swear to you. He sounds exhausted and in severe pain. My heart breaks for him as he tries to comfort me. He shoves the images of the woman that is his captor and I immediately shove it to Siobhan. Her eyes widen slowly with recognition and I know that nothing good can come from her expression.

"Your Majesty," She speaks out loud for the benefit of everyone else in the room. "we have a much bigger problem than originally thought. The woman that has him held hostage is Serena. She was one of the most promising young witches in centuries and was set to take an apprenticeship on the Grand Coven. Her mate was killed by a Vampire, in a standard challenge, which was normal at the time. She used her mate's death as fuel and started a crusade against the Vampires. Coming to the Grand Coven didn't yield the results she had hoped and the battle ended with two dead Grand Coven Leaders. She was gone. We tried to trace her, with no luck. We never heard from her again. She was and still is, one of the most powerful witches in the world."

The room spins for a moment and I chastise myself. This is no time for mental breakdowns or pity parties or weakness of any kind. War had just been declared on me personally and it would not end well. I would go to the ends of the earth and kill whoever got in my way to find Kurt. May God have mercy on Serena, because I would not. She would not escape again, she would die soon.